What you need to know before upgrading your iPhone 7 to iPhone 8

Apple launched its new iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, sparking a rush among many iPhone 7 users to upgrade. While Apple's newest bet on ARKit gets a massive push with this launch, it's worth looking at how much more you get in an iPhone 8 (and iPhone 8 Plus) as compared to an iPhone 7 (and iPhone 7 Plus).

Primarily, the A11 Bionic chip (designed for the Augmented Reality experience) and wireless charging are two major game-changing differentiators in the new iPhone 8.

We list down the features of the newly announced iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus and how different they are as compared to their predecessors:

Colour and Design

While you had five colour options in iPhone 7 (jet black, black, silver, gold and rose gold), the new iPhone 8 is currently available in three colours only - silver, space grey and gold. The glass finish offering water and dust resistance remains the same in both iPhone 7 and iPhone 8.

Retina HD Display

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus had Retina HD displays, but what they lack and what the new generation of iPhones has added is True Tone adjustment of the white balance of the display. It matches the surrounding light for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience. The iPhone manufacturer claims that the redesigned stereo speakers are up to 25 percent louder and deliver deeper bass, enabling richer-sounding music, videos and speakerphone calls.

Performance - A11 Bionic

A11 Bionic features a six-core CPU design with two performance cores that are 25 percent faster and four efficiency cores that are 70 percent faster than the A10 Fusion, offering performance and energy efficiency. A11 Bionic also integrates an Apple-designed GPU with a three-core design that delivers up to 30 percent faster graphics performance than the previous generation. All this power enables incredible new machine learning, AR apps and immersive 3D games.

Designed for AR (and ARKit)

The cameras on iPhone 8 Plus are custom-tuned for the ultimate AR experience. Each camera is individually calibrated, with new gyroscopes and accelerometers for accurate motion tracking. The A11 Bionic CPU handles world tracking, scene recognition and the GPU enables incredible graphics at 60fps, while the image signal processor does real-time lighting estimation. With ARKit, iOS developers can take advantage of the TrueDepth camera and the rear cameras to create games and apps offering immersive and fluid experiences that go far beyond the screen.

Camera

iPhone 8 has the same camera as iPhone 7, but the newer model's 12-megapixel camera features a larger and faster sensor, new colour filter, deeper pixels and OIS for capturing vibrant photos and videos with more detail. A new quad LED True Tone Flash with Slow Sync results in more uniformly lit backgrounds and foregrounds. With iOS 11, both iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus support HEIF and HEVC for up to two times compression and storage for twice the photos and videos.

iPhone 8 Plus features Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting, bringing dramatic studio lighting effects to iPhone, allowing customers to capture stunning portraits with a shallow depth-of-field effect in five different lighting styles. The company, in a release, says,

Portrait Lighting is based on extensive research into the art and science of portraiture and core photographic lighting principles. It uses the dual cameras and the Apple-designed image signal processor to recognise the scene, create a depth map and separate the subject from the background. Machine learning is then used to create facial landmarks and add lighting over contours of the face, all happening in real time, giving customers even more power to express themselves through photography.

AirPower - Wireless Charging

The glass back design in iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 plus enables wireless charging solution. Wireless charging works with the established Qi ecosystem, including two new wireless charging mats from Belkin and mophie.

Apple gave a sneak peek of AirPower, an Apple-designed wireless charging accessory coming in 2018, which offers an active charging area that will allow iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus or iPhone X customers to simultaneously charge up to three devices, including Apple Watch Series 3 and a new optional wireless charging case for AirPods.

iOS 11

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus come with iOS 11, featuring incredible advancements to the Portrait mode, while new effects make Live Photos more fun and expressive. iOS 11 also brings Augmented Reality to hundreds of millions of iOS devices with a new platform for developers to build apps that let users place virtual content on top of real-world scenes. Siri debuts new male and female voices, and can translate US English phrases into Chinese, French, German, Italian or Spanish. The new Siri voices are more natural and expressive, and use on-device learning to deliver more personal experiences.

Availability in India

According to the announcement, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will be available in India starting September 29, Friday. The price of Apple iPhone 8 in India will start at Rs 64,000 for the 64GB variant while the 256GB model will cost Rs 77,000. The iPhone 8 Plus starts at Rs 73,000 for 64GB storage and Rs 86,000 for 256GB storage.